Sister Patricia Marie in San Antonio, Texas, wonders why we use three sheets to the wind to describe someone who is inebriated. In nautical terminology, some of the ropes, or lines, attached to the corner of a sail are called sheets. If three of those sheets come loose, the boat is extremely difficult to control, much like a drunk person stumbling around. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Three Sheets To The Wind Sailing Origins”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, I’m Sister Patricia Marie, and I’m calling from San Antonio, Texas.
Well, hello, and welcome to the show.
Growing up, my mom would say a few things that I always would ask her about, and she would say this one thing. It was a gentle way of thinking about people who were inebriated. She would say there were three sheets to the wind. And I remember once asking her about that, and she says, oh, it’s just three sheets blowing. And I’m like, why three sheets? Why sheets? So I was hoping maybe you can enlighten me some on this.
I’ve been spending a lot more time out on San Diego Bay here in sailboats, and I got corrected very quickly when I referred to the ropes on there as ropes. Lines on a sailboat are actually referred to as sheets. Wow. And the corner of a sail in Old English, the word is shayata, and that gives us the word sheet. And so if you’re talking about the sheets coming loose on a sailboat, and you have three of them, it’s going to be flapping around, and you’re going to have a hard time controlling that boat. It’s sort of like somebody who’s inebriated kind of stumbling around. So your boat is flopping from side to side because you’ve got no control over direction and speed and that sort of stuff.
Yeah. Gosh, I never would have thought about the wind sails on a boat. I’d always thought about clotheslines.
Yep, yep, that was what I picked. Best sheets.
Well, there you go, Sister Patricia Marie. What do you think?
Well, I think it’s pretty awesome. I learned to do sailing with my dad, and that’s something that I don’t ever remember learning that much, so that just makes it more endearing. I’m thinking about the sails on a boat and the ropes and stuff.
Yeah, or lines or sheets.
Yeah. So I love the idea that this is kind of a linguistic heirloom for you. It conjures memories.
It does. My father has passed away, and my mom, sure, her mind’s not too with us anymore, so you can’t really have conversations with her, so it really does endear it more for me.
That’s wonderful. We’re glad to help.
Thank you so much for sharing with us, and thanks for calling.
You’re welcome. I really enjoy your show. Take care now.
Thanks so much. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So, Grant, just to clarify, on a sailboat, they’re not ropes. They’re called lines. And there’s more than one kind of line, like they’re halyards and things like that. But the lines connected to the corner of the sail are called sheets. And you sure don’t want sheets flapping around.
Boy, I got a lot to learn. Call us with your language question, 877-929-9673.
